Before Ivon could speak or follow her, Mrs. Lambert rushed by the fountain, and, seizing Eva by the arm, looked fiercely into her face. “Never, never, while you and I live, shall you marry that man! Girl, remember that I have warned you! Speak to him—look at him again at your peril! Some things are impossible—this is one. Turn those eyes from my face—never dare to look at me again.” Like a storm, the woman had burst upon Eva; her face was as white as snow; her colorless lips trembled. The diamonds quivering with fire on her throat and head, were less brilliant than her wild, fierce eyes. Before Eva could speak, or Ivon move, she had swept out of the conservatory, without casting a look on the young man. “It—it is your mother!” said Eva, as Ivon came toward her; so astonished by this outburst in a woman whose self-control had been perfect all the years he had known her, that surprise had kept him motionless. “Yes,” he said, “it is my mother; but so changed, so fearfully transfigured, that I scarcely recognized her. She seemed to threaten you.” “She did threaten me; her eyes were fierce with hate. What have I done that she should assail me so?” “What have the angels done? I do not understand this, Eva. It is unlike Mrs. Lambert, who is usually so proud and cold, scarcely deigning to express her own wishes.” “She heard all we said, and it drove her wild. Oh, her face was terrible!” “I scarcely knew it. If she heard all, it was the suddenness that overwhelmed her. But she is generous. When you are my wife——” “Ah!” said Eva, drawing away from him. “How is it possible? I have no right here.” “Why have you no right, Eva?” “The poor have no rights in a place like this,” answered the girl, looking wildly around. “I have been dreaming!” “It will be your fault, and my eternal misfortune, if this dream does not last for life,” said Ivon. Eva shook her head. Her brief trance of happiness was broken up. “But I will have it so,” persisted Ivon, passionately. “On all the earth there is not another woman who shall be my wife.” “Let us go now,” answered Eva, sadly. “Your mother will be watching. I should have remembered her look, when she first saw me standing by Mrs. Carter.” “But for that I might not have said here and now, that no man living ever loved a woman as I love you,” said Ivon. Eva lifted her eyes; they were full of tears. “I shall never forget that you wished to atone for her injustice.” “Atone! Girl, I love you devotedly, madly. She knows it. I have told her so. And you love me.” Eva dashed the tears from her eyes. “Yes, I love you so well that nothing shall induce me to degrade you, by an unsuitable or unauthorized marriage. Your mother——” “My mother is dead long ago! This lady was my father’s wife; kind and generous as any real mother could be, till now. I have never wished to dispute her authority; but here it must end!”